SynthesisPloS one2024
The COVID-19 pandemic and food insecurity in households with children: A systematic review.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Current trends in household food insecurity, dietary diversity, and stunting among children under five in Asia: a systematic review.Journal of global health · 2025Pooled it
- Post-Pandemic vs. Pandemic Food Behaviors in a National Sample of Polish Adolescents: The PLACE-19 Study.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Nurturing Care Systems Underlying Early Childhood Food Insecurity in Brazil: A Causal Loop Diagram Approach.Maternal & child nutrition · 2026Article
- Cannabis Use and Food Insecurity Risk Among U.S. Adults With And Without Children.American journal of preventive medicine · 2026Article
- Trends in the Observed Versus Expected Incidence of Eating Disorders Before, During, and After the COVID-19 Pandemic: A National Patient Registry Study.The International journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundFood insecurity is defined as not having safe and regular access to nutritious food to meet basic needs. This review aimed to systematically examine the evidence analysing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food insecurity and diet quality in households with children <18 years in high-income countries.
methodsEMBASE, Cochrane Library, International Bibliography of Social Science, and Web of Science; and relevant sites for grey literature were searched on 01/09/2023. Observational studies published from 01/01/2020 until 31/08/2023 in English were included. Systematic reviews and conference abstracts were excluded. Studies with population from countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development were included. Studies were excluded if their population did not include households with children under 18 years. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood institute (NIH) tool for observational cohort and cross-sectional studies was used for quality assessment. The results are presented as a narrative review.
results5,626 records were identified and 19 studies were included. Thirteen were cross-sectional, and six cohorts. Twelve studies were based in the USA, three in Canada, one each in Italy and Australia and two in the UK. Twelve studies reported that the COVID-19 pandemic worsened food insecurity in households with children. One study reported that very low food security had improved likely due to increase in benefits as part of responsive actions to the pandemic by the government.
conclusionAlthough studies measured food insecurity using different tools, most showed that the pandemic worsened food security in households with children. Lack of diversity in recruited population groups and oversampling of high-risk groups leads to a non-representative sample limiting the generalisability. Food insecure families should be supported, and interventions targeting food insecurity should be developed to improve long-term health.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.